Santa Cruz Farmers Markets

Hidden Fortress is a farm based coffee roaster. Coffee helps finance the start-up costs of a new farm which specializes in breakfast items like fruit, eggs, muffins, and of course, coffee! Owner Amelia Loftus started roasting coffee as a hobby in 2000 and has roasted all the coffee she drinks ever since. On a trip to Hawaii a few years ago she picked wild coffee beans and hand processed a small batch of coffee. This experience gave her a profound respect for the amount of labor and expertise required to produce excellent coffee. When looking for a way to reach self sufficiency as a farmer, coffee was the logical choice.

The roasting is done with obsessive attention to detail on a very small scale fluid air bed commercial roaster that roasts just 2 pounds at a time. The roaster uses propane and solar power from a mobile solar power generator mounted on the truck which also powers the coffee booth at the farmer's market. With such small batches the coffee is labor intensive to produce but it is also easy to keep inventory farm fresh.

Yeyen had a raw food restaurant in Santa Cruz, raw food changed her life in terms of energy level and overall health.

Santa Cruz Permaculture (SCP) arrives at the markets in the early winter and sells their beautifully packaged, artful hoshigaki - dried whole hachiya persimmons. Alongside hachiya they are rolling out a whole line of preserves - pickles and salsas. Seasonally they bring kiwi, greens and other produce to the markets.

Their most unique seasonal treat, hoshigaki is referred to as the kobe beef of the fruit world because it is incredibly laborious, tender and delicious. Each fruit is massaged multiple times as it hangs to dry over a period of weeks. It is most common in Japan, Korea and China. Dave Shaw, the owner and founder of SCP, was first inspired to make hoshigaki over 15 years ago when he noticed abandoned persimmon trees around the county, their fruit dropping and rotting on the ground. As a long-time student of food systems Dave was moved. He knew that world hunger is a distribution, not a production problem; just one third of food produced is eaten. What could be done about this food waste?

Santa Cruz Permaculture is a spirited endeavor, not solely economic. Dave comes from a lineage of educators and health practitioners, his parents a retired teacher and doctor. As Dave moved through his 20s and into his 30s he examined how he could contribute to the important work he was studying: permaculture, agriculture, forest and water regeneration, etc. During this time he also completed the UCSC Farm and Garden Apprenticeship. Preserving local food and moving it out of the waste stream became one part of a large vision. He sought out elders and learned from them eventually launching Santa Cruz Permaculture in 2016. The organization would include educational programs, consultation with farms and homesteaders and eventually production and an immersion program. Hoshigaki is the production part of the company.

Serendipitously there are persimmon trees on land where Dave lives. There he harvests, dries and packages the fruit. It is a sophisticated processed - the first year the about 200 fruit he strung to dry molded. Now, over a decade later, Dave has honed his skills and the hoshigaki he sells at market are beautiful.

In addition to running SCP Dave is a teacher at UCSC and out in the community and he is a PhD student. When we were closing our conversation he brought up the trimtab principle. On ships the trimtab is a small rudder that turns first, then turning the larger rudder. He sees SCP as a trimtab for the Great Turning; a move from the industrial society toward a life sustaining society. Learn more about Dave and his work by visiting his stand at the markets this winter or visit his website. Glad to have you on board this season SCP!